Don Lapre: DEAD.

[Z5 FILMS]

Don won't be placing anymore tiny classified ads..

US TV pitchman dies in federal custody - Yahoo! TV

 

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[zaiteku]

"Don Lapre was arrested at a Lifetime Fitness location in Tempe, AZ, with serious self inflicted knife wounds to his groin, and had reportedly lived in the Lifetime Fitness location for 2 days"


dang, man. Why the groin? it seems like pitchmen are always living on the edge...

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Enjoy Life -- kinda scary that when reading his personal website, it has a kinda foreboding, foreshadowing tone to it. Check it out while it is still up. Also, I find that the photos of the *stuff* (nice houses, landscapes) holds little value compared to the priceless photos of his family and those left behind. You can know how to make all the money in the world, but without freedom or family, its value is secondary.

RIP Don and the one tiny classified ad.

(Irony: He was living at my gym before he was arrested.)

 

[wade1mil]

Eerie and sad. I like this quote though...

"I believe that being willing to fail is part of having a chance at success.... Never stop dreaming"

 

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[CarrieW]

rip don lapre!

even tho he was being charged as a criminal he was actually the one who got me started in thinking about making money differently. those infomercials really opened my eyes. the infomercials are why I thought making money for myself by myself was possible. not wanting to spend money on his "programs" led me to the library to try to figure it out on my own...

so I say rest in peace and thank you don lapre!

 

[911Carrera]

Never heard of him until this thread. Sad.
His wiki page says he was charged with running fake internet businesses to defraud people. Not that wiki is a respected source but it's what I could find.

Not a fan of infomercial folks but sad to see anyone die like that.

 

[aikay77]

Sad. I read his story. The same thing happened to the Vincent James guy who the Feds clamped into prison. He was lucky though.

The sidewalkers in Govt hate rich people and will go to any lenght to 'cut them to size'.

RIP Don Lapre. God loves you and he'll have you. trust me.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

[video=youtube;Nns3He0qYJs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nns3He0qYJs[/video]

 

[Darkside]

Sad. I read his story. The same thing happened to the Vincent James guy who the Feds clamped into prison. He was lucky though.

The sidewalkers in Govt hate rich people and will go to any lenght to 'cut them to size'.

RIP Don Lapre. God loves you and he'll have you. trust me.

I've never heard of the man before reading this thread, but if he was defrauding people then he did deserve to go to prison. I feel sorry for his kids. After all, they're innocent in all of this, and they just lost a father.

 

[CarrieW]

lmfao mj

he had kids?

 

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[Darkside]

lmfao at the video! Even though I'm black, I found the part with the black guy hilarious.

"Even I was able to make money on Don's program, and I'm a black guy!"

 

[Anon3587x]

Not all can handle adversity.

 

[Darkside]

@bateati

He was probably guilty, so he figured that putting an end to it quickly would be better than going through the trial and years of being in prison. If he was innocent, he would have fought it out like most people.

Also, the shame of public embarrassment is often too much for some people to handle.

 

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[Anon3587x]

@bateati

He was probably guilty, so he figured that putting an end to it quickly would be better than going through the trial and years of being in prison. If he was innocent, he would have fought it out like most people.

Also, the shame of public embarrassment is often too much for some people to handle.

I agree with the above completely.

I look down on people who obtain their self worth from the way other people view them. People can be shallow and tasteless creatures, you would have to be a complete fool to let them get the best of you. I never feel bad for anybody who commits suicide, it irritates me.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

For those not familiar with Don Lapre, he was popular pre-internet.

[video=youtube;mubCkCAEiDQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mubCkCAEiDQ[/video]

Of course one would argue, if you're making $50K/wk from your 1-bedroom apartment, shouldn't you be able to upgrade into a two bedroom? Or at least a 3bed/2ba house?

 

[wade1mil]

Haha

1-800-NOT-A-SCAM-NOT

 

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[kahem89]

Dunno the guy.

But Im no fan of scamming your way to riches.

I also think that the only one to blame if you do get scammed, is yourself, also 9 of 10 people who get scammed is often victim of their own greed (ironic?)

To good to be true, Hell yeah.

Cheers

 

[Darkside]

Dunno the guy.

But Im no fan of scamming your way to riches.

I also think that the only one to blame if you do get scammed, is yourself, also 9 of 10 people who get scammed is often victim of their own greed (ironic?)

To good to be true, Hell yeah.

Cheers

Victims of their own stupidity, as well. There are plenty of greedy people who wouldn't fall for scams because they have enough brain cells to realize that they are scams. If some guy claiming to be a Nigerian prince sends you an email talking about how he'll transfer 10 million into your bank account if you send him $1,000, and you still send him a check, then you're pretty stupid.

 

[77startup]

@bateati

He was probably guilty, so he figured that putting an end to it quickly would be better than going through the trial and years of being in prison. If he was innocent, he would have fought it out like most people.

Also, the shame of public embarrassment is often too much for some people to handle.

One thing we must remember is that once a governing power wants to go after you being innocent or guilty doesn't matter nearly as much as whether they feel they can win the case or not.

 

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[biophase]

I bought Don Lapre's program back in 1992. Looking back at the program, I don't think it was a 100% scam. It may not have been a solid easy program, but how is that different than all those real estate tax liens or flipping programs? None of them are easy.

The SCAM was that with his program your one tiny classified ad was to sell his "One Tiny Classified Ad Product." It was basically the make money stuffing enveloped scam.

Looking back, if I had a product to sell at that time. His program would have helped me immensely in determining where to place ads, how to write them and how to collect the money. But the biggest problem was that you weren't selling a great product at that time, you were selling his "Make Money from Home" product.

Now his program had an upsell. It was I believe around $1000 (I can't remember) and what it did was to give you the right to air his infomercial. He sent you his 30 minute infomercial in VHS format and on your VHS tape the phone number at the bottom of the screen had an unique extension so he could track sales (affiliate marketing pre-internet). Wasn't this ingenious? No wonder you saw his infomercial everywhere and all the time!

All you had to do was get your VHS tape aired and he would give you 30% commission off any sales made during your airing.

I know you are thinking, how the heck do you get an infomerical aired? Well in his program he tells you how to do it. Think about it, he wants you to succeed but as you do, his commercial gets aired more and more. The tools were in the program.

I followed it and actually got a 30 minute slot on a local tv channel at 2am. I believe it only cost $100 to air it back then. I actually made 2 sales on that airing which came out to $120. So I profitted from the single airing.

I am willing to bet that most people who bought his programs didn't do anything with it. I still remember calling local TV companies trying to get my VHS aired. How many of you would do that today if someone gave you a 30 minute informercial and said "get this aired" on your own dime and here is how you do it?

Now his vitamin product. I believe that that was a total scam.

There is about a 2% chance I still have all that stuff somewhere at my parents house. I'll see if I can find it next time I go home.

 

[Z5 FILMS]

I don't think people like Don should go to jail. He did not do much. He sold garbage for $39.00. It's not much different than buying a CD for $20 that ends up sucking (which was most of the time) and you got lured in with the single that was the only good song on the CD. So he got you for $39.00. No biggie. Paying $85 for a shirt because it says Ralph Lauren on it is a bigger rip off. Ralph probably paid $3.00 for that shirt in China.

Maybe there's more to the story. I'm sure there were some backend garbage they would pitch you with after you bought the tiny ads kit or the vitamin garbage. I remember back in the early 90's I bought bought Don Lapre's Lifetime Reminder Service Package. Basically you could buy these reminder cards for like $3.00 each. You sell them for $19.00 and the buyer could fill it out and receive a "Reminder" about that date, anniversary or whatever for the rest of their life....for $19.00!! : )

I remember going door to door trying to sell them, and standing out in front of the grocery store with these reminder cards trying to sell them to people. They were all laughing at me telling me they have seen the pitch on TV. I never sold a single one. Good times thanks to Don!! The kit cost me $39.95 but the memories from it were priceless!

Snuffing yourself is pretty chickenshit though. There's the possibility he could have got only a few years. I did not know he had kids. That's even worse.

Here's his wife (I think she is but not sure) pitching his vitamin MLM gimmick.

[video=youtube;NqG7t2Mhreg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqG7t2Mhreg&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL72B04CEB85C0410C[/video]

 

[Steven Williams]

He was good friend of mine

Yes Don had two children and a wife. Over that past year I'd been networking back and forth with him about Internet marketing. We would advertise on Facebook and compare results. We were also working on a new technology that would enable a business to have live face to face customer service online.

My company is currently using it now.

I was shocked that he took his own life but there was something going on with one of his children that took almost all of his energy out of him. Out of respect for him and his family I will keep that secret forever.

I can tell you that he told me exactly how to build a $40 million dollar a year business and I think what he is guilty of was making people think they could get rich with out working. We talked about that and he advised me to always be transparent in my business.

He paid millions in refunds and I know this for a fact.

R.I.P Don from your friend Steven

 

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[CMCarlin]

While I'll reserve any personal judgment on his character out of respect for the Dead, I will say that I will NEVER forget the way he always said "TINY CLASSIFIED ADS IN MY 1 BEDROOM APARTMENT"


It's ingrained in my head. I actually read a long piece on him a few months ago. He made and lost, a LOT of money. One business fell through because of some contractor problems (real estate development) and that drained all of his finances, which lead him to go broke.

But, he was dumb for trying to sell a miracle pill. You get into the health market and you all of a sudden have a LOT more people watching you. Should have stayed with the tiny classified ads.